2007 Award Winners Announced By International Film Music Critics Association

FEBRUARY 20, 2008 | Submitted by Film Music Critics Association

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2007 AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED BY INTERNATIONAL FILM MUSIC CRITICS ASSOCIATION

Dario Marianelli\'s Atonement named Best Score of 2007

February 15, 2008. The members of the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) have announced the winners of the 4th Annual IFMCA Awards, honoring achievements in film and television music in 2007.

The Score of the Year award goes to Italian composer Dario Marianelli, for his score for director Joe Wright\'s ATONEMENT, which is based on the best-selling romantic novel by Ian McEwan. Marianelli spent the majority of his early working career in the United Kingdom and Ireland before coming to international prominence in 2005 with his scores for THE BROTHERS GRIMM and PRIDE & PREJUDICE, the latter of which received an Academy Award nomination.

In addition to the main award, ATONEMENT picked up two other awards, including Best Original Score for a Drama Film, and Film Music Composition of the Year for Elegy for Dunkirk. ATONEMENT has been one of the soundtrack successes of 2007, winning the Golden Globe for Best Score, receiving Academy Award and BAFTA nominations, and being mentioned by numerous film critics organizations in their annual reviews. ATONEMENT is available on CD from Decca Records.

Alexandre Desplat, who led the 2007 nominations, wins two awards: Composer of the Year, and Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science-Fiction film for his score New Line Cinema\'s adaptation of Philip Pullman\'s convention-challenging children\'s fantasy THE GOLDEN COMPASS. The French composer, who was also IFMCA\'s Composer of the Year in 2006, enjoyed a similarly stellar year in 2007. In addition to THE GOLDEN COMPASS, his works included director Ang Lee\'s controversial political drama LUST, CAUTION, the whimsical fantasy MR. MAGORIUM\'S WONDER EMPORIUM (co-composed with Aaron Zigman), and the French language feature L\'ENNEMI INTIME, which received the Best Score award at the 2008 Cèsar Awards, France\'s version of the Oscars.

Other winners in specific genres include Alan Menken, who wins the Best Original Score for a Comedy award for his tongue-in-cheek homage to classic Disney on ENCHANTED; John Powell, who wins Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure Film for his score for THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, the third film based on Robert Ludlum\'s best-selling spy thrillers; David Shire, who wins Best Original Score for a Horror/Thriller for his return to mainstream scoring after almost 20 years on director David Fincher\'s ZODIAC; and Michael Giacchino, who wins Best Original Score for an Animated Feature for his Grammy-winning, Oscar-nominated score for the gastronomic delight RATATOUILLE.

The Best Original Score for Television award goes to Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi and his work on the Korean television series TAE WANG SA SHIN GI (THE STORY OF THE GREAT KING AND THE FOUR GODS), while the inaugural award in the new Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media category goes to John Debney for his epic score for LAIR, and recognizes the increasing level of compositional excellence for this exciting and popular media.

British composer Ilan Eshkeri is named Best New Composer of 2007, for his score for Matthew Vaughn\'s adaptation of the classic Neil Gaiman fantasy adventure, STARDUST. Eshkeri, a former protégé of the late Michael Kamen, helped complete his mentor\'s score for the German animated film BACK TO GAYA after Kamen\'s death in 2003, and also worked alongside Shigeru Umebayashi on the high-profile Silence of the Lambs prequel HANNIBAL RISING in 2007, cementing his place as one of the most exciting new composers to emerge in recent years.

The Film Music Label of the Year honor again goes to Oakland, California-based Intrada Records, who somehow managed to surpass their own high standards by re-releasing a number of classic, groundbreaking scores in extended versions with re-mastered sound and expansive packages. Amongst their 2007 releases were a pair of Jerry Goldsmith\'s finest - ALIEN (Winner of Best New Release/Re-Release/Re-Recording of an Existing Score) and THE WIND AND THE LION – as well as Alex North\'s rejected score from 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, and the third installment in their anthology of scores from the groundbreaking AMAZING STORIES TV series from the 1980s (Winner of Best Film Music Compilation Album). Douglass Fake is the Owner and President of Intrada.

Despite it not being eligible for competition (as it was not an original 2007 composition), the IFMCA also elected to give special recognition to composer Marc Shaiman and lyricist Scott Wittman for HAIRSPRAY, the big-screen version of their own smash hit Broadway show, which was itself based on John Waters\' cult 1988 film. A good-natured yet bitingly satirical look at rock and roll in Baltimore in the late 1950s, the film was one of the musical highlights of 2007.

The complete list:

A - SCORE OF THE YEAR* Atonement, music by Dario Marianelli

B - FILM COMPOSER OF THE YEAR* Alexandre Desplat

C – BREAKTHROUGH COMPOSER OF 2007* Ilan Eshkeri for Stardust

D - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DRAMA FILM* Atonement, music by Dario Marianelli

E - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A COMEDY FILM* Enchanted, music by Alan Menken

F - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ACTION/ADVENTURE FILM* The Bourne Ultimatum, music by John Powell

G - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A FANTASY/SCIENCE FICTION FILM* The Golden Compass, music by Alexandre Desplat

H - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A HORROR/THRILLER FILM* Zodiac, music by David Shire

I - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR AN ANIMATED FEATURE* Ratatouille, music by Michael Giacchino

J - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE* Earth, music by George Fenton

K - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR TELEVISION* Tae Wang Sa Shin Gi (The Story of the Great King and the Four Gods), music by Joe Hisaishi

L - BEST ORIGINAL SCORE FOR A VIDEO GAME OR INTERACTIVE MEDIA* Lair, music by John Debney

M - BEST NEW RELEASE/RE-RELEASE/RE-RECORDING OF AN EXISTING SCORE* Alien, music by Jerry Goldsmith; Douglass Fake, Michael Matessino and Nick Redman (producers)

P – FILM MUSIC COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR* \"Elegy for Dunkirk\" from Atonement, music by Dario Marianelli

Q – SPECIAL AWARD* Hairspray, music and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman

==================================

The International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) is an association of online, print and radio journalists who specialize in writing about original film and television music. The IFMCA Awards are the only awards given to composers by film music journalists.

The IFMCA was originally formed in the late 1990s as the Film Music Critics Jury by editor and journalist Mikael Carlsson, a contributor to filmmusicradio.com and filmmusicweekly.com, and the owner of the Swedish film music label MovieScore Media. Since its inception, the IFMCA has grown to comprise 43 members from countries as diverse as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The IFMCA presented its first awards in 2004.

The IFMCA strongly feels that a film score\'s strength lies in the combined impact of two important elements: the effectiveness, appropriateness and emotional impact of the score in the context of the film for which it was written; and the technical and intellectual merit of the composition when heard as a standalone listening experience. As such, the membership votes for the best scores of each year with these two criteria in mind, and strives to recognize scores which excel in both these areas. As an international organization, the IFMCA also makes conscious efforts to celebrate the best film music, not just from mainstream Hollywood productions, but world-wide, wherever it may originate.

Previous winners of the IFMCA Score of the Year Award were James Newton Howard\'s LADY IN THE WATER in 2006, John Williams\' MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA in 2005 and Michael Giacchino\'s THE INCREDIBLES in 2004.